Shapiro, who was among the first to graduate with a SUNY Oswego meteorology degree, recalls the first students of the program trudging around taking snow depth measurements, in an era of limited ability to gauge the current regional weather status—never mind forecast it.

“One time, I was on the phone with the National Weather Service out of Syracuse,” Shapiro said. “They had no idea Oswego was getting pounded with snow.”

This was before modern geostationary weather satellites even existed, Shapiro explained. The available data wasn’t sophisticated enough for them to see what was happening some 35 miles away.

Now, more than 40 years later, times—and technology—have changed. The presence of state-of-the-art equipment, with huge advances in the accumulation of knowledge, has set the science of meteorology on a path of rapid growth. And from the days of a few program pioneers, to today with an enrollment of 90, SUNY Oswego students are at the forefront of the field, as part of one of the largest undergraduate meteorology programs in New York and one that attracts students from throughout the Northeast.

The SUNY Oswego Atmospheric and Geologic Sciences program, home of the meteorology students, is no longer housed in Piez Hall, which was replaced in 2013 with the $118 million Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation. The program now boasts multiple observation decks, national funding, research credentials and modern equipment.

According to Dr. Alfred Stamm, who joined the department in 1977, today’s students have access to high-powered computers and current data designed for forecast modeling and weather prediction. There’s a new wind tunnel simulation area to test wind instruments and simulate flow around objects. There are two towers with weather instruments to keep track
of and archive current weather: wind, temperature, humidity, visibility, precipitation and solar radiation.

There are also instruments to measure cloud heights and wind from 50 to 400 meters above the Earth’s surface.

“We can find temperature, humidity pressure and wind with our radiosonde system, which carries sensors aloft using balloons,” Dr. Stamm said. “The sensors get the wind using global positioning software and all of the data is transmitted to our ground station. We can also measure weather parameters with a tethered balloon.Via the Internet, we get data from around the world and predictions from many different models worldwide.”

In other words, it’s come a long way since the teletype machine.

But there’s another fundamental factor that has been present as a backdrop to these astounding developments in meteorologic technology: Lake Ontario. For all students, past and present, it has been a bonding force in

their experiences at SUNY Oswego, and it’s been drawing aspiring weather students since the inception of a meteorology major in 1971.

According to Dr. Stamm, a campus perched on the eastern edge of the Great Lakes System—with its capability of churning up powerhouse snow storms and waterspouts—gets the blood pumping in the meteorology department and propels students on to careers, including broadcast meteorology worldwide and a wide range of positions with the National Weather Service.

“Storms come from the west, off the lake,” Dr. Stamm said. “It gives us lots of

snow, lightning and waterspouts, which is exciting weather to observe.”

And today’s students couldn’t agree more.

“I grew to love lake-effect snow back home in Buffalo, and Oswego’s proximity to Lake Ontario not only lets me experience its own brand of lake-effect snow, but also allows me to learn how to forecast it and conduct research,” said Christina Reis ’16, who is a dual meteorology and broadcasting major and chief meteorologist at SUNY Oswego’s WTOP-10. “The opportunities are growing each year, in both the broadcasting and meteorology departments, so I am able to get plenty of hands-on experience in both fields.”

The forecasting lab faces the lake so students can watch storms approach. The deck and observation room look both north and west. And while a cutting-edge facility on a Great Lake that spans 7,320 square miles—larger than the entire state of Connecticut—may draw students here, some
opt to leave classrooms and get into the elements farther afield.

Each year, a team of students travels to Kansas as part of a Storm Chasers program. Other research initiatives have gotten students out of the classroom, including one staffed largely by undergraduate students: the OWLeS (Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems) program. SUNY Oswego received National Science Foundation funding to fly and drive into the heart of lake-effect snowstorms to study their structure and improve forecasting.

A Community in Search of Advancement

On the heels of moving into its new space in Shineman, the meteorology department’s growth has not slowed. It hired its first climatologist, Michael Veres, who started in the Fall 2015 semester. Veres plans to broaden students’ training to include knowledge of climate dynamics, with coursework dedicated to practical computer modeling and data analysis.

Dr. Veres said he joined SUNY Oswego following the completion of his doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because of the opportunities for growth within a strong department.

“The advanced technology allows students and faculty to perform research and further our understanding of climatology,” said Dr. Veres.

A global viewpoint will only advance students’ understanding of the weather, Dr. Veres said.

Like all sciences, meteorological advances evolve in cadence with the times and the technological advances available to its students. Reflecting on this evolution—from his time on the Oswego lakeshore to his retirement home in Sun City, Ariz., where he now lives with his wife, Gail Lehrich Shapiro ’74, Shapiro is full of admiration.

“What the students have today compared to what we had, it’s just amazing,” said Shapiro, who spent 35 years as a meteorologist for WTVT-13 in Tampa, Fla.

It was a job he landed because he had a tape of himself standing in a tiny room in Oswego’s TelePrompTer cable TV offices.

Shapiro would walk downtown to stand in front of the single camera in his parka and deliver the forecast for city residents.

Celestial in its reach, the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation is also practical to the core — a visionary platform for launching careers in the physical sciences while tackling urgent issues of environmental sustainability.

From its 35-seat planetarium to its 240 energy-efficient geothermal wells, the complex showcases Oswego’s ever-growing commitment to scholarship and research in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The $118 million Shineman Center is a visionary configuration of laboratories, observatories, and stimulating learning and gathering spaces. Both high-tech and humanistic, it’s the crown jewel of Oswego’s recent 10-year capital expansion.

EDWARD AUSTIN SHELDON LEGACY

Presentation by Casey Raymond and Allen Bradberry

Exactly 100 years ago, Oswego unveiled its first future-focused building, the beautiful, stately Sheldon Hall, and celebrated its then-progressive approach to teacher training. In architecture and infrastructure, Sheldon Hall and the Shineman Center have little in common. In spirit, they are one — legacies of Edward
Austin Sheldon, who energized American education by replacing memorization with dynamic, hands-on, student-centered learning.

President Deborah F. Stanley, acknowledging the commonalities, said, “Today, Dr. Sheldon would agree that the dedication of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation has helped meet his stated goal to ‘raise Oswego to its highest degree of usefulness’ in the pursuit of academic excellence as we prepare the next generation of exceptionally trained and globally engaged scientists and engineers in the STEM fields and beyond.”

A testament to Sheldon’s student-minded spirit is the building’s $5 million naming gift — the largest cash gift in college history — from two dedicated former faculty members, Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71 and Dr. Richard S. Shineman, who — before his death in 2010 — created a bequest that established the foundation that bears his name.

“Dick and Barbara have been longtime, generous supporters of our college,” President Stanley said. “They epitomize the loyalty and devotion of the entire SUNY Oswego community. Their gift, moreover, reaches a new dimension and carries Oswego to new heights.”

CHEMIST, PHILANTHROPIST, CATALYST

At the center’s dedication, professor emeritus Richard Shineman was center stage. His wife, professor emerita of education Dr. Barbara Shineman, said her unpretentious husband, founding chair of the college’s department of chemistry, “would be more than a little embarrassed that we are calling attention to him today. But,” she continued, “while he had no self pride, he was proud of Oswego.

“This is a magnificent structure,” said Dr. Shineman, her eyes sweeping the atrium’s soaring glass walls and graceful wooden curves.

A signature feature of the Shineman Center is its open and collaborative ambience, captured in the stunning, ground-floor atrium known as “the nucleus.” The Fusion Café, with electrical outlets at workstations along the lunch counter and walls, invites students and faculty to relax, exchange ideas and let their imaginations soar.

“Buildings are ephemeral,” Dr. Shineman said. “What we have come to dedicate is more than an artfully constructed complex. It is a philosophy of education.

“Richard didn’t fit the narrow stereotype of a scientist sequestered in his lab. He lived a well-rounded, adventuresome life.”

SHOWCASE FOR SCIENCE

The lake-view complex “puts science on display,” according to chemistry professor Casey Raymond, who helped shepherd the project to realization.

Every element reflects Sheldon’s experiential, interactive approach: the glass-walled observation room, where meteorology students track lake-effect bands moving across Lake Ontario; the planetarium, offering animated journeys through the universe, including the Milky Way galaxy, and the $320,000 Zeiss Confocal Microscope, rarely found in academic settings. Students are even encouraged to write on walls to temporarily post their ideas, questions and events on transparent acrylic panels lining the halls.

STEM SUPPORT

The Shineman Center showcases Oswego’s strong commitment to providing a workforce proficient in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), disciplines in which researchers must join forces in search of solutions to complex current and future problems.

“Historically, the sciences have had separate labs and separate wings,” said Dr. Raymond. “The Shineman Center is the first comprehensive, truly integrated science facility in SUNY.”

STUDENT-CENTERED

At the Shineman Center community open house in September, dozens of students displayed their research posters in the nucleus of the new building. A palpable sense of ownership prevailed as students in white lab coats welcomed visitors, served refreshments and led tours.

“The students are extremely grateful,” Anthony Smith ’14, physics major and president of the Oswego Student Association, said. “This is the most impressive building on campus.”

Oluwakemi Mogaji ’14, a biology major whose Oswego research into diabetes has taken her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and will help prepare her for medical school, said, “I feel privileged to learn in a building like Shineman.”

EARTH-FRIENDLY

The Shineman Center is designed to make sustainability a priority and to qualify for gold LEED Certification (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from the U.S. Green Building Council. Recyclable materials, locally sourced, were used in construction; rooftop solar panels and geothermal wells mean the building will be 21 percent more efficient than a standard science building; it is estimated to use 40 percent of the energy compared to the former buildings (64 percent less natural gas and 23 percent less electricity). It’s designed to generate 38 percent less wastewater than the former buildings.

“Each of the geothermal wells is 499 feet deep. If you drilled any deeper you’d need a mining permit,” explained earth science major Julie Meleski ’13. “In the classroom, it’s hard to get your head around geothermal dynamics. It’s much easier to understand in an actual setting.”

PERFECT ROLE MODEL

A highlight of the dedication ceremony was the conferring of a State University of New York honorary doctor of science degree upon Dr. Anthony Cortese, an internationally renowned environmental advocate.

A senior fellow at the Boston advocacy agency Second Nature, Dr. Cortese spearheaded the 2007 American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a national campaign to enlist higher education administrators in reducing carbon footprints. President Stanley is a charter member — Oswego was one of the first five of 677 colleges to commit.

TEAM EFFORT

College personnel, including approximately 170 faculty members, spent more than a decade envisioning, designing, building and equipping the interdisciplinary science building.

Dr. Kenneth Hyde, chemistry professor emeritus, said he spoke at the groundbreaking of the Shineman Center, then he intentionally stayed away until the dedication. “The building is everything we dreamed and more,” he said, as he provided historical context. “The Science Planning Committee goes back before 2000. It was 2003 when Sara Varhus, then dean of the Oswego College of Arts and Sciences, invited me to work half time as her liaison to the committee.”

He credits Varhus with starting the Sciences Today lecture series that was a catalyst to increased collaboration among people from the various disciplines. “We came out of our individual silos and began the interaction that is now promoted through the design of the Shineman Center.”

Hyde recalls taking science faculty members to visit new complexes on other campuses and to attend conferences of Project Kaleidoscope, where they could grasp possibilities for integrating the STEM disciplines in modern facilities. Among those who caught the vision are Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, a later chair of the science planning committee, and Casey Raymond, the current chair, who saw the project to completion.

Visibility: An observation room has been designed to allow people to view the ever-changing weather conditions outside the building. Labs have large windows so students can see advanced technologies and instrumentation, such as the human-sized, programmable robot in the engineering labs.

Distinguished Service Professor of earth science Alfred Stamm recalled his department’s initial request: a penthouse observatory, with 360-degree views for meteorlogical forecasting. “At the time, we were tracking lake-effect bands through windows in the geology lab or by running up to the roof,” he said.

Eventually, wants and wishes were narrowed down to needs. The penthouse proposal became a large, glass-walled, corner observation room with prime lake views, plus an outdoor observation deck.

A 16-inch telescope, the largest in Oswego’s history, is housed in the observatory at Rice Creek Field Station. Associate professor of astronomy Scott Roby, says excitement over the telescope and planetarium tripled the number of students interested in the college’s astronomy club.

STAMP OF APPROVAL

When college visionaries took the plan for a science building to Albany, SUNY administrators were receptive. “This college had already demonstrated, through projects such as the business school, Campus Center and Sheldon Hall renovations, that it used funding effectively,” said Dr. Raymond.

In 2008, with the promise of $118 million in capital funding bonded through the State University Construction Fund, Oswego moved forward with design and three years of construction. The project included the integration and renovation of Piez Hall, as well as extensive focus on instrumentation.

“The final product is testament to planning, patience and open lines of communication,” said Raymond. “We got a lot of work done; what we ended up with is pretty outstanding.”

GRADUATE AND ADVOCATE

A big assist, as Oswego made its case for capital funding from SUNY, was the support of former New York State Senator James Wright ’71. At the dedication, President Deborah Stanley recognized his contributions by conferring upon him the inaugural Trident Award, with high praise for Wright’s outstanding — and longstanding — public service and advocacy for the college.

Members of the platform party at the dedication of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation are, from left: Marshall A. Lichtman, SUNY Board of Trustees; Dr. Anthony D. Cortese, recipient of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree; Dr. Barbara P. Shineman, ’65 M ’71, president of the Richard S. Shineman Foundation; the Honorable James W. Wright ’71, recipient of the inaugural Trident Award, and Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley.

President Stanley explained the new award is a replica of the three-pronged copper finial that topped Sheldon Hall for a century. “The trident is an apt symbol of our college’s strength: Its three prongs represent our storied past, our vibrant present and our promising future; its skyward reach reflects our valiant, ever-striving spirit.”

Expressing appreciation for the award, Wright was quick to turn the spotlight back to the Shinemans. “As a couple,” he said, “the Shinemans represent the spirit of Oswego.”

SENSE OF CELEBRATION

At the Oct. 4 dedication, a jubilant President Stanley told 350 guests, “This is a landmark event in the history of our college. It’s a monument to the power of science and the power of education.”

Snygg Hall is scheduled for demolition, and a memory garden is planned to preserve the names of renowned psychologist and former Oswego professor Donald Snygg, Ph.D., for whom the building was named, and Richard K. Piez, Ph.D., who taught at Oswego from 1893 to 1937, and for whom Piez Hall was named.

Hoangny Nguyen ’14, biochemistry major, who often spends 12 to 15 hours a day in the lab, welcomes the move to Shineman. He can see friends in the Fusion Café, and he’s just a few steps from his resident hall room in Sheldon Hall. Nguyen has a connection to the building’s benefactor: His aunt and uncle were chemistry majors when Dr. Richard Shineman was department chair.

EDUCATION IN ACTION

The summer move into the Shineman Center, Raymond said, with 10 students and 170 faculty members, was “well coordinated but pressured.” He added, “We had contractors going out the back door, and students coming in the front door. We estimated students moved about a million pounds.”

Meleski, one of the students, said she will long remember the heat, heavy loads and tension of moving expensive equipment, but she enjoyed the logistics. “I learned I might be interested in a master’s degree in professional science management,” she said.

UNENDING POSSIBILITIES

With the opening of the 2013–14 academic year, students and faculty members began classes and research in the Shineman Center, launching its infinite trajectory toward the future. The Oct. 4 dedication was a celebration of generous benefactors and all who pursued the stellar vision. It also served as a symbolic compact that the visionary thrust continues to propel Oswego forward through ongoing scientific conquests and unlimited discoveries.

“Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” —HARRIET TUBMAN

Sometimes, we make choices that lead us to the best possible circumstance among the best possible people we could hope for in our lives. When that happens, we thank our lucky stars, and we align ourselves with those people, we learn from them, we hold them in our hearts and we emulate them. We call them mentors; we call them friends.

“They are the kind of people you want to keep in your life,” says Thomas Dana ’84 M ’87, Ph.D., of the motivating professors he and his wife, Nancy Fichtman Dana ’86 M ’88, Ph.D., had at Oswego. “You want to honor them by giving to your own students and colleagues the same effective support they gave to you.”

The Danas say they were part of a constellation of Oswego students who were nurtured in the 1980s by “wonderful faculty members.” Former dean Thomas Gooding, Ph.D., and his wife, Shirley, and the late Nathan Swift, Ph.D., and his wife, Patricia, were among them. And, in counting the mentors who became lifelong friends and inspirations, the Danas especially treasure their association with Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, and her late husband Richard S. Shineman, Ph.D., a faculty couple whose lives revolved around the college, its programs and its students. Now, as leaders in higher education themselves, Nancy and Tom say they try to incorporate the Shinemans’ practices into their own teaching and administration.

Tom, a meteorology and astronomy major at Oswego, is now a professor and associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Florida College of Education. He recalls Richard Shineman as a professor who connected with each student on an individual level and understood what each student needed.

“Deep down, although he was a marvelous scientist, Dick Shineman was an educator,” Tom says. “He was passionate about having all students acquire science literacy. He found ways to make chemistry accessible to all.”

Tom refused a scholarship to a prestigious private college in favor of choosing Oswego because he had worked in his high school planetarium and was impressed to find a college that had one as well. Nancy followed in the footsteps of her brother, Bruce Fichtman ’80, who had come to Oswego to study industrial arts.

“I was the little sister, coming along for family visits and seeing the campus as a place where I could feel comfortable,” Nancy says. “I always knew I wanted to teach.”

Maybe it was cosmic forces that brought Nancy and Tom together as co-resident assistants on the first floor of Oneida Hall. Maybe it was simply the end result of a series of wise choices.

“We realized we worked together really well,” Nancy says.

“And the residents seemed to enjoy seeing our relationship develop,” Tom adds. The working relationship turned personal, and it led to marriage, career and family.

The Danas are established now in Gainsville, successful in their professions in higher education at the University of Florida and enjoying life with their son, Greg, a sophomore at UF, and daughter, Kirsten, a high school senior.

They resist occasional urges to move north again, but they say they are constantly aware of the excellent foundation they received at Oswego, and they often recall their student days, when professors provided the resources and advantages they needed to excel.

“We valued that sense of collegiality and the fact that we were inspired to seek our best selves,” Nancy says. “Barbara Shineman was a huge influence in my life. She constantly encouraged me. To hear, from an educator you admire on every level, the words, ‘You can do this,’ meant everything.”

Nancy became a colleague of her mentor when she joined Barbara Shineman in directing the Sheldon Institute, an Oswego summer program of enrichment, designed originally for gifted and talented pupils.

As a professor in UF’s School of Teaching and Learning, with credits for extensive research and publication in areas of new and continuing teacher development, Nancy carries on the best practices and techniques she acquired from Barbara.

“I constantly want to create the same qualities of mentorship and the same environment of positive reinforcement that Dr. Shineman gave to me,” she says.

As for Barbara Shineman, she says the connections she and Richard made with “brilliant young people like Nancy and Tom” enriched their lives.

“The college was the nucleus around which we planned our days. We were both passionate about higher education, specifically about Oswego where we felt blessed to be teaching and learning,”
she says.

From the archives: Richard S. Shineman at the start of his career. A dedicated teacher and generous philanthropist, he established the trust before his death that, along with a personal gift from his wife, Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, provided funding to name the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

“Dick and I both took such delight in seeing students blossom and fulfill all their potential. And, of course, Dick — given his philanthropic principles — demonstrated his allegiance by making generous gifts for scholarships and programs and by establishing the foundation that bears his name.”

A teacher at the Oswego Campus School and later a member of the faculty in the School of Education until her 1989 retirement, Barbara has had a lasting influence that reaches far beyond the immediate interaction in the classroom. To Nancy, she was not only a professor, but also a light, a source of illumination.

“Barbara guided me and nurtured me — in the classroom, as my student teaching supervisor and again, later, when she was director of the Sheldon Institute,” Nancy says. “It was a tremendous opportunity to work with her in those situations, to learn from her and to receive her wise counsel.”

The Danas credit the Shinemans with persuading them to pursue doctoral degrees. “It was quite a leap,” Nancy says. “We were quite comfortable. We owned a home and were becoming settled in Central New York. But, with the affirmation we received from Dick and Barbara — and largely, it was Barbara’s influence — we sold everything and went back to being students.”

Tom had a connection to Florida State through the work he had done on the NSF grant with professors Swift and Gooding, so they applied and were accepted there. The Danas say they have been fortunate, after completing their degrees, to receive academic appointments at universities where they can both pursue their individual passions for education. First at Pennsylvania State University, now at UF, they have helped create and sustain an academic environment like that they saw modeled at Oswego, where they say they were part of “a learning community.”

Coming together for the Oct. 4, 2013, dedication of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation was, for Tom and Nancy Dana and Barbara Shineman, like gathering as a family once more.

“They have become as close as any beloved relatives,” Barbara says. “Dick and I watched their careers develop, and before he died, we all enjoyed vacations and visits together. He would have been delighted that they were here for the dedication.”

Barbara says the Danas are among those alumni who are the pride of Oswego. “They are graduates who embody all the best qualities we hope to engender in our students so that when they go on to their careers, they take with them the values we hold so dear.”

Spending time on campus after several years prompted Tom and Nancy to reminisce about their student days. As they reflected upon their life journey and thought about the people who helped launch their careers, Nancy and Tom said they continued to be filled with gratitude.

“It all started here,” Tom said, as he and Nancy held hands walking toward the new building that bears the name of one of their cherished Oswego mentors. He and Nancy smiled at one another, hurried to go inside for the landmark celebration. “It all started right here.”

Launched from Oswego’s lakeside laboratories and classrooms, mentored by Oswego’s dedicated faculty and inspired by a culture of inquiry, Oswego alumni soar in research, discovery, innovation and design. They lead the way in a variety of groundbreaking missions; their work is a testimony to the vigor of the Oswego experience and the value of an Oswego degree.

Kathleen Blake of SUNY Oswego’s anthropology department displays a new low-dose device that uses X-ray fluorescence technology to analyze the elements in archeological samples. The instrument, obtained via a $49,500 National Park Service grant, can analyze the elements and their proportions in a sample without destroying it.

Analyzing sharp-force trauma, studying ceramic artifacts disinterred after centuries, disclosing the trace elements in soils—SUNY Oswego forensic anthropologist Kathleen Blake can think of many uses for portable X-ray equipment purchased with a National Park Service grant.

The new instrument will enable faculty and student researchers to study samples in detail without liquefying, pulverizing or otherwise destroying them. “This device is widely used in archeological and museum studies,” Blake said.

Douglas Pippin, an assistant professor of anthropology and an archeologist, received the $49,500 grant with colleagues Paul Tomascak of the earth sciences faculty and Blake.

The device came with a pump to create a vacuum, a small on-board computer for work in the field, a tripod and other attachments. It uses X-ray fluorescence to analyze the elements and their proportions in a sample.

The researchers won the grant in conjunction with work the anthropology department is doing cataloging 160,000 Native American and other artifacts from archeological sites around the state. SUNY Oswego earlier received two grants totaling $1.5 million for work under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Blake, a visiting assistant professor, is on the research team for the NAGPRA project.

“This will be so helpful to student projects, too,” she said. “For example, what happens after burial of a deer’s leg? What can it tell us about the amount of copper laid down by the blade that cut the bone? What kind of blade was it?”